Ultrafast method of fullerenes extraction from carbon condensate

Abstract

The Soxhlet extraction method (SE) only used in the extraction of fullerenes from carbon condensate (CC) obtained in the fullerene production facility, which in the literature is often referred to as carbon black, does not provide complete extraction. Fullerenes can also be extracted from the CC suspension and the solvent by the mechanical extraction method (ME) and show higher degree of extraction efficiency. This method combined with filtration process takes only a few minutes and allows a significant reduction in solvent consumption. Extraction via the ME method application makes it possible to carry out extraction of fullerenes twenty times faster than by the SE method. It can be used as an independent method, bypassing the extraction by the SE method, and also as an additional one. Application of the ME method allows additional extraction of fullerenes weight percentage from the CC, after extracting fullerenes from it applying the SE method. In this instance the higher fullerenes prevail in the essences extracted by the ME method with their content reaching as high as 39.50wt%. The obtained samples of fullerene mixtures (FM) are characterized by the methods of high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Analysis of the results shows that the composition of the FM, isolated by the ME method, differs from the compositions extracted via the SE method.